single minded knitting focus
Each Wednesday, I post little snippets about what’s happening, and what I’m working on.
Single minded knitting focus, gets pretty boring after awhile.
My winter coat is all I’m working on.
Some other ideas are brewing in the background, but as far as crafting goes, this is it. No spinning. No sewing. No other knitting.
I put the body together, have picked up for the sleeves, and am halfway through sleeve number 1. This means it’s absolutely no-longer a portable knitting project, and while I knit, it’s doing double duty as a blanket.
My plan is to close up part of the side-seams & underarm seams, once I get both sleeves halfway knit. I’m doing this so I can get a better understanding of the proportions of the sweater/coat.
I’ll get some better photos and write a more in-depth post, once I close up the side seams and it stops looking like a grey alpaca blob.
shawls, sweaters, sewing, yarn, and a new pop up yarn shop
Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on.
You can see all of the Wednesday posts here.
I bound off my shawl! Knit out of Julie Asselin’s Merletto and of my own design, I can’t wait to block it and see how it turned out!
First I need this sweater to dry.
I’m so accustomed to knitting & blocking lace shawls (which can dry in a couple hours) that the day or two sweaters require to dry feels like an eternity.
I took a break from my frantic sweater knitting to do a little bit of sewing…
In my brain I know that sewing is faster than knitting – a lot faster – but every time I’m away from the sewing machine for more than a week or so, I sort of forget how much faster it really is.
Mostly though, it’s been sweater knitting all the way.
My boring black sweater is nearing being finished. I started the first sleeve yesterday – and thanks to a long evening of knitting & drinking with friends it’s to the elbow.
Got to love a good distraction for many hours of knitting stockinette.
Last weekend I went to the opening party of a new pop up yarn shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Gauge + Tension is run by two friends of mine, Michele and Melissa. G+T specializes in high end, hard to find yarns – and it does not disappoint!
I was restrained and picked up one skein of Western Sky Knits – superwash merino lace weight, in the colorway “elephant.” It’s a really beautiful irresistible purple-grey-y color.
They also carry, Julie Asselin, Brooklyn Tweed, Quince & Co. Jones & Vandermeer, Sleep Season, Hedgehog, and Tanis Fiber Arts. You can see all of their yarns and fibers here.
If you’re around for the NYC Yarn Crawl this coming weekend, Kristin of “Voolenvine” is going to set up shop at Gauge + Tension.
If you’re in or around NYC, be sure to check them out!
G+T’s address, days & store hours can be found here, on their website.
And my G+T project bag is already hard at work protecting my boring black sweater from harm – not that you’d be able to see a stain on this sweater…
How many yards/meters of yarn does it take to knit a shawl?
It depends on a lot of factors, but my preference is at least 450-500 yards (411-457 meters) of yarn.
You can read about some knitting yardage rules of thumb in “Shawls to Play With.“
Can you knit a shawl with less yardage? Yes.
I have.
“Wafian” is knit with 420 yards (384 meters) of Tosh Merino Light – a fingering weight yarn – on a US 7 (4.5mm) needle.
However those shawls tend to end up on the smaller side. More scarf-like than shawl-like. But I like my shawls on the giant side of huge.
That being said, the sky is the limit with shawl yardage.
“Tumbling Deco” takes 980 yards (896 meters) of a lace weight yarn.
“Eirwen” takes about 1600 yards (1463 meters) of lace weight.
“Ingrid’s Baby Bridal Knot” (one of the first lace shawls I ever tried knitting – it didn’t go so well…) calls for 3825 yards (3498 meters) of lace weight yarn.
And “The Queen Susan Shawl” calls for 6562-7108 yards (6000-6500 meters) of yarn. I’ve never tried knitting this shawl, but it’s the largest I could find with a quick search in the Ravelry database.
“Modern Heirloom” is a close second with 5000-6000 yards (4572-5486 meters) of yarn.
So the sky really is the limit. You can knit a shawl as large as you want, with as much yardage as you can stand. What’s the largest shawl you’ve ever knit?
